News

Joining hands and hearts, Festivals for Ukraine: A call for festival duos

24 June 2022

Joining hands and hearts: Festivals for Ukraine is a peer-to-peer call for festival duos addressed to EFA members.

Time is crucial, the situation and needs are changing very fast, as illustrated in our report of the survey on the war in Ukraine. Many festivals in Ukraine have been cancelled, even some of the festivals taking place in the Western part of the country run in a very limited form. Four months after the start of the war, Ukrainian festivals need to feel the support of their European colleagues, to continue their work and not be forgotten. The letter of Jurriaan Cooiman and Kateryna Botanova from CULTURESCAPES illustrates it perfectly.

The idea behind this new initiative is to engage in a one-on-one partnership with a colleague festival in Ukraine.

Call for interest

The call for festival duos is open to all EFA members that are willing to partner up with an international festival, active or not, in Ukraine.

We have asked the Ukrainian art institute and Sicheslav Festival Association "ArtEthnoFest" to send us a list of Ukrainian festivals to support.

The spirit is to offer a frame for two festivals to be together, to understand the individual needs and offers, one-on-one, face to face, eye to eye. The role of EFA members can include many things, among others:

  • Being in contact with each other and sharing information
  • Thinking about artistic cooperation 
  • Access to artists in Ukraine and vice-versa
  • Exchange of managers, travels to festivals, visits
  • Communication
  • Financial support
  • ...

There are so many ways. The core of joining hands and hearts is to look, case by case.

Next steps

EFA will give visibility and recognition to the duos in its communication channels so that other festivals can follow their example. We will invite festivals to present the duos in Yerevan during the Arts Festivals Summit 2022, and include them into our online zoom meetings.

Credits

Joining hands and hearts: Festivals for Ukraine is an initiative of the European Festivals Association, CULTURESCAPES, and Oleksandr Butsenko from Sicheslav Festival Association "ArtEthnoFest".